'Twas the Night Before Kindergarten

Well, this is it. We've gone to Open House. Lots of kids came in and hugged Srta. Joyner, so they must sincerely like her. It's a nice big, open classroom, with an attached bathroom. Erik hung on us a lot, looked around and brought me books to read to him. This was difficult, since I don't know Spanish, but sometimes it was a familiar book, and that helped. The highlight may have been learning that we already know the Spanish word for turtle: tortuga. It was fun to see there were a couple kids Erik knew from preschool, and a couple I knew from other preschool classes.

Open House was Friday, and this weekend was tough. Erik was pretty aggressive and yelled a lot at other kids. I think the Open House ramped up his anxiety level. Today we had a fifteen minute meeting, just our family with Srta. Joyner. She asked him what he wanted to learn in school this year (how to invent things), asked Joe and me what we wanted him to learn (social skills, sharing, school routines). She made sure Erik knew how he was getting home (bus). She checked if he would be eating school lunch or bringing lunch from home. He said bringing his lunch. [Later we looked up what lunch is tomorrow (beef ravioli) and Friday (hot dogs). He's not familiar with ravioli but he loves hot dogs, so he's going to get school lunch on Friday.]

I've tried to be calm and upbeat in front of Erik, but when he's not around I'm a wreck. Yesterday I walked to the library and let myself feel sad. I thought about all his baby and toddler milestones. I cried a little. When I got to the library I started looking through the children's books for stories to read to Erik. I started to feel excited about the years ahead and all the wonderful books I could share with him. That helped. Joe has been feeling sentimental, too. I went through Adin's clothes and bagged the small ones to send to Goodwill. Joe said just looking at the bags made him tear up thinking about how time passes.

I don't know if I'll get pictures and stories posted tomorrow night, but I'll try to do it by this weekend.